Shinde sad over attacks on Dalits in Haryana

New Delhi  :  Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde Wednesday expressed sadness over Dalits being attacked in Haryana and said he would speak to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda about the incidents.

He, however, noted that the central government will not interfere in the state in view of the constitutional limitations.

“It is sad that Dalits are being attacked. I will speak to the chief minister about it. Central officials too will speak with state officials on it,” Shinde said to queries about the gangrape of a 15-year-old Dalit girl in Haryana’s Jind and her subsequent suicide after being unable to bear the trauma.

“We are keeping a constant watch. But under the constitution, there are centre-state relations provisions. Indian union is neither unitary nor federal in structure,” he said.

“Sonia Gandhi was there (in Haryana) yesterday (Tuesday) to meet the girl’s family,” he added.

United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi met the teenager’s family and took on the caste khap panchayats that suggested lowering of marriageable age.